Heartsurgeon

ate a smoked salmon cheesecake appetizer at Emeril's in New Orleans years ago...it was FABULOUS. yes, savory cheesecakes work great. you can make a shrimp, crawfish, smoked salmon, or even lobster cheescake. anything that goes with cream cheese and butter (which is nearly everything) will likely work. just google emeril salmon cheesecake, and the recipe pops up.

"bone marrow" i nominate you for the 2012 Nobel Prize in Hamburger. Really an outstanding idea,

I mixed 2 tablespoons of vadouvan into about 1.5 cup plain yogurt and i'm going to baste some chicken on the grill tonite. meanwhile, i must say, it makes a great sauce just the way it is, cold! I've used it with crackers, on a sandwich...i'm going to try it in some grilled veggies later tonite. great idea! thanks! makes me wonder about adding it to whipping cream with a little lemon, and beating it, to make a topping for fish, or even adding it to an ice cream base for vadouvan ice cream. i will have to try the mac cheese idea and the crab cake topping as well. i appreciate the ideas and recipes.

I have a package from Kalusytan's in my pantry that I haven't used. I bought it to try in this mac and cheese recipe." Look forward to hearing about the results (hint, hint).

"Sometimes I'll do a crabcake with vadouvan sauce... " Do you incorporate the vadouvan into the crab cake or make a sauce? If sauce, how do you make it? Do you like it (hard to tell from your post)? Have you tried the sauce with any other seafood?

Meant to say I stop baking the mixture once little blackened bits start forming around the edges. The frozen vadouvan "pucks" measure about 1/3 cup each. Individually vacumn sealed, i've used them up to a year after i've made them with good result. It takes at least 4 hours to make this in bulk (i start with a 10 pound sack of onions, which typically yeilds about 8 pounds of usable onion, and scale the recipe from there. between all the prep, cooking and packaging time...it adds up. i also agree that the end result resembles sludge...and has a harsh taste if eaten directly. HOWEVER, once it gets mellowed out with some cream and other ingredients, it is addictive. Plus, I usually have wild dreams after eating it (something in the garlic/shallot/onion family enhances dreaming...). when i make the chicken in vadouvan/cream/leek sauce, the vadouvan is added in with the chicken stock and allowed to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

"I tried making that same recipe a couple of years ago but ended up with a most unappetizing brown sludge. I would be interested in a second attempt but would need lots more guidance. Perhaps you could do a tutorial? " sounds correct - the end result is dark chocolate color (some might say brown sludge). It takes several hours to make this curry, and just a warning, the odor lingers in the house for a week after you make it. I have used standard yellow onions, and more recently Walla Walla onions - no difference detected I pulse the onions in a food processor with the chopping blade, essentially a dice, same with the shallots and the garlic. I sweat all the above on medium heat in a heavy saute pan, usually takes me multiple batches..I go for just a hint of brown in the onions etc (they get fully caramelized in the oven later). Don't burn the garlic. I have several sheet pans covered with a silpat near the stove. As each batch of onion/shallot/garlic gets done, i dump it onto a sheet pan and sprinkle some of the spices on top. Once all the veg is cooked off, i make sure the veg and spices are well mixed. Then I distribute the spiced oniony goop to several sheet pans, and layer it out, ends up about 1/2 inch in depth, typicall 2-3 sheet pans (1/2 size)Into the oven at 300 degrees for 2-3 hours, about once an hour, I flip the goop over and mix it a little. Eventually the goop is dehydrated significantly, and the mixture has caramelized deeply, I might pop the temp up to 350 if its not browning fast enough. I baking the mixture when i start to get little bits turning black around the edges. i don't want a burnt flavor. Bythis time the goop has shrunk down to a fairly thin layer of uniformly dark brown "sludge". I scrape the sludge up, pack it in silcone ice cube tray and freeze it (covered in saran wrap). I shrink wrap the cubes the following day.

Nobody??

highly recommend reading one or both of the following books: Salt: A World History Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World both by Mark Kurlansky you impression of salt cod as a food product will forever be changed. if your a foodie, you owe it to yourself to read one of these books. don't expect recipes however!

I make a large batch of vadouvan 1-2 times/year by scaling up the epicurious recipe. I make a chicken with vadouvan and leek, (variation of an epicurious recipe) that is addictive: 2 leeks, split down the middle, then sectioned into 1 inch segments (well washed) 4 chicken breasts - season with salt and pepper 1/3 cup vadouvan 1/4 cup heavy cream 1 cup white wine 2 cups chicken stock sear/brown chicken with small amount butter/canola oil in saute pan - set aside saute leeks in same pan (add a little more canola if needed) until translucent deglaze the pan with the wine, combine leeks/wine/chicken/chicken stock - simmer for 15-20 minutes covered (until chicken is done). add cream when a few minutes remain. serve over rice. I have tried this same recipe with turkey breast (didn't care for it!), and I have decided vadouvan doesn't go well with beef. I need some new, killer use for this spice. Favorite recipes for using this spice mix would be appreciated, including any sous vide applications. Hopefully there are some others addicted to this seasoning out there!

I bought some new york strip steaks that turned out to be tougher than I cared for...ground the rest up as burger meat, added butter to the grinder, to up the fat content of the burger... yeowza! that made some tasty burgers. tried the same trick (butter in the grind) with some lean cuts of lamb...really good lamb burgers. just another trick to keep in mind when trying to create a fabulous burger. butter makes it better!

if you crave dim sum, recommend Yank Sing at the Rincon Center. Grab a few jars of their chili sauce to take home, it's addictive (i brought home 6). Just ate there 2 days ago. if your looking for peruvian - La Mar Cebicheria Peruana It's very nice. We like Boulevard a lot, eat there fairlly regularly Ate at Chez Panisse - it was nice, but i'm not dying to go back. Ate at Gary Danko - it was nice, but i'm not dying to go back. we like the clam chowder in a bread bowl from Boudin Bakery.

The Duke's WFO is a thing of beauty. You need to decide what best suits your needs, or "when in doubt, buy both"

i generally like to cook bone in chicken thighs, skin on, sealed with either butter or olive oil. no seasoning. 150 degrees for 3 hours. leave in the bag, cool and refrigerate. i do this 1-5 days before i'm going to use them. when i want to eat them, i take the thighs out of the bag, at this point i can easily strip off the skin if i want. Pat them dry, season as normal, and either cook on the grill, or sear in a pan to warm up the meat and brown the surface. flawless, tastey, fall off the bone chicken everytime.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php/topic/141189-baking-on-the-grill-a-revelation/page__hl__+grilling%20+revelation#entry1855463 this post has a picture of my setup. With this setup, your grill becomes an oven suitable for baking bread, and high temperature pizza cooking. Yes, the temperature drops when you open the grill, just like it drops when you open your oven door. The thermal mass of the grill, the rising heat from the burners, and the heat retained in the pizza stone make the temp bounce back up. I'm not against the Forno Bravo, and if I had a backyard full of hardwood trees, and did a high volume of cooking, i'd get one. But the romans used these ovens, and they ran them 24/7. they coupled them with bathhouses, so the heat was either being used to communally bake bread or cook food for large numbers of people, or warm water for the baths. the problem is getting the fire going and efficiently utilizing the heat. If you have to light up a hardwood fire, wait for it to be ready, and then cook just one pizza...then clean out the ashes, and load it up again, that's a lot of work. Your not going to be inclined to fire that baby up every day. That's my main point. You can achieve pizza heaven with any heat source that can get hot enough (600+ degrees). Add a box of wet wood chips, and any heat source can add smoke. The question i'm posing is how much effort, expense and cleanup are you interested in?

I've had multiple weber kettle's, smokey joe's, various smokers, and a Green Egg, I viewed gas grills like a sailboat owner views powerboats...with distain. I switched to lump hardwood charcoal years ago...I was a grill snob. Then I had to bake and cook for a dozen+ people in the wilderness, and I wanted consistency and ease. I ended up buying a gas grill, and now I wonder why I waited so long. As for pizza, I mix the dough in the morning (Wolfgang Puck's recipe, works great), let it rise all day while at work, fire up the grill (turn a bunch of knobs) when I get home, make the pizza...by the time i've made the pizza, the grill is 600+ degrees, I slide the pizza onto the baking stone, 6-10 minutes later perfect crust and toppings. I use to make pizza's in my oven at 500 degrees, and I had to par-cook the crust, then load the toppings, then recook the pizza, in order to get the toppings and the crust just right. the blazing heat of the grill/pizza stone gets it all done in one step, and both are perfect. High heat makes for easier pizza cooking with superior results. When i'm done cooking the pizza, I shut the grill off. No loading charcoal, no clean up. It's like using a kitchen oven, except it gets hotter quicker, and it doesn't heat up the house in the summer.

i know one person who has one. they have mentioned the biggest disadvantage is that you have to start a hardwood fire and wait for it reach heat. there is clean up involved, . it's a lot of work to turn out one pizza for dinner. i lusted after one, but as i've grown older, i've come to realize that ease of use and minimal clean up is a big plus. i ended up getting a weber summit gas grill (this from a devoted lump coal griller), adding a pizza stone, and know i bake bread, and make pizza's on the grill. The grill has essentially no clean up, reaches temps of 600- 700 degrees in 15 minutes, and allows me to cook a pizza in 6-10 minutes.

just google it. you can buy it from amazon, and sam's club. probably more places a well. i guess it depends on how much your willing to pay.

Kuhn Rikon Duromatic Pressure Cooker simple, built like a tank, will last forever, swiss made (over engineered).

I must insist that "SPAIN, on the road again" with Mario Batali, Mark Bitmann,Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols retains the title of the worse cooking show ever. Not only is it a truly henious and hateful show, it manages to be horrible with a cast consisting of a highly accomplished chef, a highly accomplished food writer/critic/cook, a highly accomplished actress/cook. Indeed, the only non-highly accomplished cast member (Bassols) is the only one not subject to my opprobrium. This show is an epic failure INSPITE of all that talent. Had the cast actually taken their roles seriously, it could have been a classic! Instead, a toxic brew of hubris, sloth, and gluttony produced a cowpie of a cooking show. I defy anyone to show me a larger collection of food luminaries, that have managed to produce such an utter piece of crap, as this show.

“I believe that if I ever had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around.” James Beard "cold pizza and warm beer...the breakfast of champions" Heartsurgeon (from the college years) ' "Just one little mint, monsieur. It is so thin. What harm could one little mint do?" Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life.

apple wood smoked, thick cut bacon everything else just doesn't matter after that!

Learned this trick from a call in viewer to the old Sara Moulton cooking show years ago. It really works great. Make your spuds ahead of time ( a few hours ahead works) and keep them warm in a crock pot with the lid on until service. Eliminates having to deal with the spuds at the last minute, allows you to serve them nice and hot. It works really well, and relieves you of the last minute rush just before service.

"Seville Orange marmalade" make a ice cream base, mix in the marmalade...add a dash of vanilla and grande marnier seville orange ice cream! it's kinda like a adult creamsicle.

Borsa. best lamb chops anywhere in the world. anywhere.